This invention relates in general to public transportation vehicles and more particularly to electric commuter cars and regional rapid transit cars.
The majority of the electrically powered transit systems of the world use conventional rotating electric motors to provide the motive force to propel the train. The basic method used to transmit the shaft work of the electric motor to the axle-mounted driving wheels of the massive swiveling bogies is a heavy encased set of lubricated reduction gears riding on the axles.
In modern inter-city and regional commuter passenger coaches, a Diesel engine is attached to a transmission housing containing a hydraulic torque amplifier, a set of reversible reduction gears, and a hydraulic retarder. This combination drives the wheels through axle mounted final reduction gears. Both of these drive systems are heavy, costly, and require expensive maintenance and downtime procedures. The diesel exhaust gases contribute to atmospheric and surface contamination.
Thus there is a need for a new and more efficient means of propelling a light-weight vehicle on a high-strength elevated structural rollway above all surface obstacles.
Further, there is a need for motors that have no drive-line gears, no heavy final reduction gears, and are not axle-mounted in massive swiveling bogies.
Lastly, there is a need for multiple pairs of motors that have an associated computer system that integrates all variable operating conditions required for the most efficient energy consumption consistent with good passenger service and vehicle performance.
None of the known prior art disclose such linear motors and computer combination as set forth herein. The present invention as delineated meets these needs.
This invention with its many innovations provides an improved transportation vehicle that uses two magnetic linear motors at each end of the rigid vehicle which inductively react with the special steel rollway surfaces to develop the propulsion force.
This invention provides a major design modification to existing conventional passenger vehicle understructure propulsion equipment, to reduce cost, weight, and increase productivity.
It is an object of this invention to form a simple design having a three-phase magnetic linear motor suspended by, and between pairs of individually load-supporting, non propulsive, resiliently cushioned, central guide-beam steered wheels.
It is a further object of this invention to form a comprehensive design, having many computer controlled means of electrically responding to digitally integrated programs, track-side signals, and central dispatcher modifications.
It is also a further object of this invention, to provide a vehicle that is quiet, has a smooth rapid acceleration, needs less maintenance, and requires a reduced total investment of travel infrastructures and land acquisition costs.
The concept of this design is to create a public transportation vehicle that has no revolving mechanical power devises used in propelling the vehicle along its rollway. A single electromagnetic linear motor is rigidly suspended between each steerable pair of load-bearing wheels that roll on the flat surfaces of a steel structural guideway. The linear motor assembly is secured in a carrier frame bolted to locating arms extending from the axle arms over the inter-axle support beam, with adjustable means to maintain a specific xe2x80x9cair-gapxe2x80x9d clearance between the motor and the rollway surface.
Forced air is ducted to many small channels created in the insulated coil-windings and laminations of the linear motor to cool it and exclude dirt and debris. The linear motors provide an accelerating and retarding function that is greater than that of existing power wheel adhesions, because they are completely independent of weather conditions such as rain, glaze-ice and snow.